When Do You Need a Favor from G-d? (Parshas V'Zos HaBracha)

there's a gamora in saita daf yoda ahmed alof that points out that toyota both begins and ends with facet with kindness specifically near the beginning of the torah it says that hashem made clothes he clothed the naked his malbec arum for whom for adam and for have that's an active hazard clothing the naked is an act of of generosity kindness then near the very end of the torah hashem buries the dead for whom does he perform the mitzvah of burying the dead from aisha from aisha says he buried him in the valley he's talking about moshe so the gemara says we see that begins and ends with an act of kindness but here's a question so in addition to the fact that we learn from this how important kindness is that toyota begins with kindness and toyota ends with kindness is there any particular is there any particular significance to the particular acts of kindness in other words yes we can learn a general idea that kindness in general is extremely important and you can see that from the fact that toyota is book ended so to speak with kindness at the beginning and kindness at the end kindness running through the entire torah yeah that's a general lesson about the general importance of kindness but what can we learn from the specific instances of kindness the kindness at the beginning of torah and the kindness at the end of toyota what's the specific lesson based on the specific instances so first of all notice that these two examples of kindness who is the one doing the kindness in both instances who is the guy malcasit who is the bestower of kindness in both instances it's interesting it's hashem now it's not that surprising i guess that plato would begin with an act of kindness on hashem's part because you know hashem is the ultimate initiator of kindness right hashem started being kind before the toyota even begins right the whole premise of creation is is an act of kindness so the fact that hashem is the first one being kind in toyota but hashem is even the last one being kind in theater the kindness that we're reading about is not kindness in other words between one human being and another human being although there are plenty of instances of intrapersonal kindness throughout toyota however the bookends the beginning and the end of kindness and toyota are both acts of divine kindness of hashem's acid to man so that's the first important thing to to take notice of but second of all notice for whom the kindness is being performed okay so the first thing we noticed is who's performing the kindness hashem but also notice for whom or to whom is the kindness being done these two situations actually are two opposite recipients of kindness couldn't be more opposite because you're looking at man in his very lowest moment in all of human history and man in his very highest level the very highest level of human evolvement or or development how so first let's look at adam when hashem clothed adam he had just fallen to the lowest level he just sinned also the very fact that he even needed clothes was a symptom of the sin because if you remember before he ate from the etadas adam and java were completely innocent like babies they were naked and they were not ashamed so the need for clothing itself was indicative of the spiritual fall they had just experienced that's first of all second of all their physical nakedness as rashi says their physical nakedness is symbolic of their spiritual nakedness they were around him from what mikola mitzvoice they were naked of mitzvahs they were given one commandment and they couldn't keep it and so they had lost their mitzvah and their physical nakedness was sort of um outer manifestation of their of their spiritual nakedness they were naked of mitzvahs and yet notwithstanding the fact that at that moment autumn was at the lowest point of human failure spiritual bankruptcy the failure which is the root of all future human failures adam was still a recipient of hashem's kindness hashem did not begrudge adam of his kindness now let's contrast this contrast this with with the last act of kindness in the torah when hashem does kindness for may shoulda been at the time of his passing meisha bainu was on the highest possible level that a human being can reach we know there are nun 50 gates of understanding and in his lifetime meisha abano could only reach men pes gate 49 but being that sadiq are even greater after their passing than in their lifetime so at the time of his passing maesha rose to an even higher level than he ever he had ever been before during his life and he attained on the 50th level which by the way is hinted to by the fact that the toyota tells us no man knew his burial place what does that mean no man knew his burial place the altar says means no man can understand can fathom the place that maesha reached at the time of his burial no man whose burial place literally means that they can't find it you can't find it on a map like the gemara talks about it but also it means where maisha reached on the day of his passing we can't even wrap our minds around such a level let alone attain it also it's hinted to the fact that izal says where was mesha buried har navoi right that's what the title says says are in it that when maisha reached the level of his passing he was finally at charnon 50th gate and nobody could even comprehend that level so we're talking about someone who had reached the highest level that human being can reach the very highest spiritual ascent and yet even at that level whatever hashem did for moshe at that time by burying him is still considered an act of kindness kindness hasid is kindness means grace it means gratuitous kindness unearned so even atsadik like moshe on the on the day of his highest attainment in this world his his receiving hashem's kindness is still considered that kindness and unearned favor from hashem so what do we learn from this from these two examples at the very beginning of the toyota and at the very end of the title what we learn is specifically a lesson about when it's appropriate to look for and to rely upon hashem's kindness from admiration we learn that even when we're at our very very lowest moments even when we made terrible mistakes and we've fallen and we are undeserving we've messed everything up we can still turn to hashem and rely on his gratuitous kindness that's what we learned from adam the first act of kindness in the torah from moshe what do we learn that even when we're at our highest moment when we've achieved so much we have so much to be proud of nevertheless we have to view anything that hashem gives us at that point as an unearned gift as just kindness we have nothing coming to us we didn't earn anything we don't deserve anything no entitlement whatsoever which is uh because i'll tell us that sadiq never rely on this husson whatever they ask for from hashem it's never oh i earned this you owe me that it's always the attitude is always that whatever hashem gives us is and that's the attitude that we have to learn from maisha that even at the highest level human being could ever reach whatever he receives from hashem at that point is still considered kindness so we all have our relative autumn moments and we have our relative maisha moments but the common thread that runs between them is that we can always and must always rely on hashem's kindness never despair of hashem's kindness because you've fallen too low and never assume that you're no longer in need of hashem's kindness just because you've risen so high so that's a general lesson in our vedas hashem that's applicable all year now this also happens to be particularly fitting at this time of year as drab explains in in this letter this is a general attitude for all year long but it's particularly fitting right now at this time of year let's think about it the high holiday season let's look back where did it all start start out on rosh hashanah now when we come to hashama rosh hashanah we don't come to hashem as people who are confident in their merits no no to the contrary what do we say we say you know in a we have no good deeds i don't know i'm sure you have some good deeds no no ain't bottom island we don't have good deeds because we're not looking at it that way and in fact in the max hashanah we even say we are left naked we call ourselves spiritually naked we have nothing we're standing here in front of hashem with nothing it's not that we're coming here we're saying oh look we did this we did that you know can you hashem what can you manage you know can you manage to give us a deal for the you know the few uh spiritual dollars that we have no we don't we come in and we say we walk we say to the shopkeeper we have nothing we don't even have a few pennies what can you give us as an unearned gift so on rosh hashanah we turn to hashem and we ask hashem to clothe the naked we stand in front of hashem daleem impoverished and empty right it's from a song right darling now you know why i speak and i don't sing so that's the first thing that happened and then what happens of course because hashem is the ultimate in acid so he clothes the naked just like he did on the first rosh hashanah interestingly enough because that incident of khasid that we just spoke about when hashem clothed adam when did that happen actually on rosh hashanah because on the very day that adam was created he sinned he was expelled from the garden and he was clothed so literally on the very anniversary of that day when that energy is in the world again you know how jewish time works it's cyclical like a spiral staircase although it's cyclical you know we come back to each point on the circle each year right oh here's rosh hashanah again ah here's pesach here's where but it's like a spiral staircase because it's on a higher level each year it's more intense there's an is a new light each year so think about it each year we come around to that anniversary but on a higher level of when hashem clothed all them when hashem had gratuitous kindness for adam and we asked him to do the same for us again that we are spiritually naked and impoverished and we're not asking to trade because we have nothing to trade with we're just asking for compassion and hashem responds to us just as he responded to other on that very day 5781 years ago then throughout the high holiday season these powerful days they do their work and we get lifted up ascend after ascent we get lifted up up to yin kippur where we're like angels and then we're lifted up to sukis when we celebrate together in unity and in pure joy and then finally we get lifted up to the ultimate ascent shmini atseres in simcha that's the climax of the high holiday season you know a lot of people don't realize this they don't appreciate it in khabad there's a particular emphasis on this but you know i use the term high holidays it's it's actually high holiday is a very american expression you know there's there's days of awe so days of ours a translation of a jewish concept but high holiday whatever it's in english it's it's an english i'm an american boy i speak you know that's how i speak but you know if if there's a concept called high holidays then there should also be a concept of the highest holidays so if the high holidays are rosh hashanah and yem kippur then the highest holidays are sukkah shemini and in chabad you definitely feel this and and and by the rabbit definitely this is what was seen that the ultimate climax of everything that started rosh hashanah really it started with malach passada back in elul it started with the whole warm-up the whole buildup but the climax came about on simca's toyota and that's when we're at our highest level and and and you think about it not just but but every jew on that day think about what it represents you know the whole concept of shminyatseris of the the corbin being one bull right the sacrifice the offering in the in the besan ignacion the holy temple was one bull what what's the idea it represents the fact that during the whole sukkah 70 bulls were brought which represent the seventy nations of the world but on set is one bull which represents the unique relationship of one nation the jewish people with hashem and that's tied in with the whole name of atseraseris means lingering and there's a madrish that explains that the king made a party and everybody came to the party but at the end of the party he turned to his best friend he said hey now that all the guests have left how about you and i hang out together and just you know one on one so the seven days of sukkahs we brought the sacrifices of the bulls for all the nations of the world and we bring blessing to all the nations of the world but after the after that's all done the king turns to us the jewish people and says hey let's have some private time now let's linger together and that's the eighth so the eighth day of lingering let's hang out together just you and me you know it's like the husband and the wife who make the big champions meal and they have all the guests come and they impress everybody and it's so nice and they they they put everything into just being the ultimate host and and it's so exciting it's so exhilarating you know especially like you're a young couple let's say and one of your first times but even even you know when uh you know you get older you know it's a big deal to host people to entertain and then the end of the evening the last guest leaves and you look at your spouse and you say now let's sit down at the table let's not clean up yet let's just have a cup of tea together and let's just enjoy each other's company that's miniatures which are the same day so think about the level that we reach on schmidt not serious in sim castera where we're sort of just hanging out one on one with our beloved with hashem we're at the apex of our of our spiritual ascent this you know this process that was growing during the entire tishrei and now we hit it now we hit the highest level so you know you'd think at that point i've come so far i've reached so high you know what's my status now you know surely i've earned i've earned the right you know if i'm asking for anything from hashem at this point you know it's not a freebie you know i have surely earned it to some extent no no no it's still a freebie even when we've come to our highest level we still look at hashem as our compassionate father who's just being kind for no reason so you know on rosh hashanah when we knew we were naked and impoverished and empty and and bonomim we have no credit to our name so then we knew we're asking for a freebie the only the only concern on rosh hashanah is you might think you're so low that how dare you ask for a freebie and we say no no of course you dare of course you did you because you could always rely on hashem's kindness but then the opposite lesson comes on schmidt when we're at this apex of spiritual development we shouldn't think oh well now we've earned the right to ask for something no no we never earned it we're still just as empty as we were in rosh hashanah and yet we still ask why because hashem is infinitely kind and what day is it it's just uncanny if you think about the fact that rosh hashanah when we are at our lowest when we are impoverished and we we claim no we claim no merits we just say hashem please be compassionate that that day rosh hashanah is literally the anniversary of one hashem clothed all them on the sixth day of creation well you know what schminitzers is not the anniversary of but it is linked to the day when moshe reached his highest level it's not literally the anniversary on the calendar but it is that it is linked to because of the torah reading when we read on simcastera versailles the completion of the uh of the humish we read about maisha rabeno on his highest day his highest level of attainment being at charnon har navai non bai the 50th gate and yet hashem does hesit does kindness for maisha it's still considered no matter how high of a level maisha has reached whatever hashem did for him is still considered khasid and so that's mirroring the fact that ansim castrata after the whole evolution of the whole high holiday season we've come to our highest level we've come to our highest level and yet whatever we ask for from hashem we're also asking for it as qasid as gratuitous kindness so that's our lesson that we're coming up to the highest level and we're about to start a new year and the new year will surely bring us highs and even greater highs we don't need it we don't even we don't need any lows but whatever happens in the coming year we need to know that whatever situation we're in we can and we must turn to hashem for gratuitous kindness there's never a situation in life doesn't exist there's never a situation in life where we can't ask hashem for his kindness or where we don't need to ask hashem for his kindness that is the constant that is the constant and that is the lesson that we learn from the fact that tata begins with an act of kindness and ends with an act of kindness we should see lots and lots of hashem's kindness for ourselves and for the whole world this year